Artist Introduction - English Frank

No Frank. I meant Scott Parker is good. Honestly. Please don't bite me.

Artist Introduction – English Frank

English Frank, formerly Frantic Frank is an English rapper; he’s a proud Londoner which explains why he likes to wear Del Boy sheepskin coats and talk about England a lot.

I think a rappers name is important and I like the name ‘English Frank’ it’s very simple and also very ermmm English, don’t be fooled by the jovial simplicity of his name though as Frank is certainly not the mellow jokey type; if you want an example of why then check out his latest F64 on youtube on which he raps about threatening to give the cameraman a beating, a menace in his eyes that suggests he probably would.

Frank’s delivery combines a lot of passionate anger with lyrics spat at an impressive BPM; lyrically he’s far better than your average MC and tackles topics ranging from your standard tales of drug dealing to the problems within inner city communities. There’s something special about Frank, I can’t quite put my finger on it but he possesses something that makes you want to listen to him, it could be the blood-boiling rage he exhibits on the microphone or the brutal and honest insight he offers regarding the drug/knife/gun culture on London Estates. Frank hasn’t got an official album out yet but his mixtape is available for free on www.datpif.com (you’ll have to make an account but it’s free and highly worth it as there’s thousands upon thousands of top-notch mixtapes worth downloading, also check out www.livemixtapes.com ).

I haven’t heard enough of English Frank to completely judge his ability but based on his mixtape ‘The Hardway’ and his SBTV appearance he’s a talented bloke, albeit a talented bloke with a terrible taste for coats.

Flow: 8/10

Lyricism: 7/10

Gangsterness: 10/10

Dickheadness: 2/10

Song Quality: 8/10

-TDS_Biro Boy

Artist Introduction - Lunchables

Banned in the 90's. This shit Fo' real Nigga. Better respect them Snickers Bite-Size foooooolll.

I know a million Mad-Men fans are screaming at their Apples, shouting "Don Draper does NOT approve."

-Chovey

Artist introduction - Jay Electronica

That ball wasn't thrown, its levitating due to excess levels of  Win.

Jay Electronica, the Zorro of Rap, not many people have heard of him (hence why I gave him that nickname) which is a shame on a criminal level. If you are one of the unlucky persons check him out now, I guarantee it will be the most constructive thing you do today… seriously you could lose your job and a member of your extended family and still feel like you'd had a cracking 24 hours after listening to a couple of his tracks.

Electronica is a southern rapper; if you're not big on American hip/hop then I should explain that the southern artists get a lot of stick from the other coasts. Jay got first-hand experience with dealing with the stigma attached to being a southern rapper early in his career; and when rapping around New York and Detroit he was booed off stage more than once despite being an incredibly gifted lyricist with a top draw flow. He first burst onto the scene with a beautifully poignant freestyle over the soundtrack of the ‘quirky’ film ‘Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind’

You won’t hear Electronica boasting about how many slags he’s fingered or how white his new cica’s are, he’s very much a socially conscious rapper who thrives on addressing subjects usually untouched by rappers but don’t worry he doesn’t sound preachy at all, just fresh.

I’m not going to pour superlatives on a rapper anymore as they are all egomaniacs anyway (except Chipmunk who suffers from depression – a result of him being a talentless monkey-nut-headed barrel of festering turd.) Just do this - Open up a new tab, go to YouTube and search Jay Electronica click on the Exhibit C suggestion and listen…if you're a fan of hiphop, be it casual or hardcore and haven't heard this you're in for a very special five and a half minutes. In my own, very humble opinions, it's one of the top 10 hip-hop tracks of the decade, I mean that. If you claim to be a hip-hop head and don't like it; then go and put on a drake track and suck your own withered, little un-knowledgeable cock, until you cum to the sound of mediocrity, whilst the rest of us jostle out to audible magic.

"They Call me Jay Electronica/fuck that call me/Jay elec hannakah/Jay elec yamakah/ Jay elec tramadon Mohammed asalamokah while su the loss of ponowa whilst I holler through your moniter."

Songs to Look out for ‘Ghost of Christopher Wallace’ ‘Shiny Suit Theory (ft Jay-Z), ‘Eternal Sunshine’ and ‘Exhibit C’

He hasn’t officially released an album yet but one is imminent now that he’s signed for rocafella records which are owned by Jay-Z. He does have lots of mixtapes however which I’m too Lazy to list them, but they are readily available and largely free so download them yourself.

One of his mixtapes is called what the fuck is a Jay electronica, I suggest you find out.

Flow: 9/10

Lyricism: 9/10

Gangsterness: 3/10

Dickheadness: 2/10

Song Quality: 9/10

-TDS_BiroBoy

The Sorry State of Graffiti Part 2

I'm back from my week long, self imposed, (attempted) heart break mending exile.

That's right, I'm back and so is the least enjoyed and most ignored article on this "Great Blog"*. Back with a few updates of more local street art.

Woah woah woah, whats that? An improvement in the standard, I hear you say? Why its almost like I actually went and looked for some good street art instead of just stumbling on it....... well that's right I did.

Even though this is the typical Robin Hood tag work, I cant help but wonder if out there somewhere, there is a wall stencil sprayed with some Pro Nick Clegg sentiment. We can all wait and hope.

Some are attempts at biting social commentary, some are weird Moomins, all fail. We know Cameron is a posh twat, however, I don't think he is quite Alan Rickman; Sheriff or Nottingham level yet. And why would a Moomin ghost smoke? Why! Oh and that swan/duck tag, that is bloody everywhere in Cheltenham. What an odd tag.

More soon.

-Chovey

Artist Introduction: Giggs

Artist Introduction: Giggs

That's an official picture, we swear we aren't racist or nuthin'

Giggs aka ‘Hollowman’ is a rapper from Peckham or ‘Pecknam’ as he and his cronies call it (you get it? Like Vietnam cuz’ it’s proper violent). If you follow the British Rap or grime scenes you will have undoubtedly heard of him, if you don’t follow them, then you probably only know Giggs as a the Welsh footballer who fooled everyone into thinking he was a model professional whilst he was swinging his cock at any female (preferably in a relationship with a loved-one) within a 50mile radius of Old Trafford….This is not that Giggs, this Giggs used to swing around Glocks and Gats whilst selling drugs before he embarked on a rap-career and started telling everyone about it.

Giggs’ first release was the freestyle ‘Talking The Hardest’ which he recorded over the Dr Dre produced Stat Quo track ‘Here We Go’. This track was monumental in British Hip-Hop and it blasted the ‘Pecknam’ rapper straight onto the top of the game’s pedestal. I may add that the track is well worth a listen or sneaky download, in fact you could even purchase it but that would you make you a corporate square…Look out for the line “Anybody thinks they can talk to my click will end up covered in red like a portion of chips” I don’t think anybody has ever used a bag of chips in such a threatening and effective way. I like that bar a lot it’s a bit silly, very English and also extremely hostile (like Nick Griffin…that’s right, I do satire too.)

Giggs’ style is unique, which is a rarity in rap nowadays- a fan of Giggs would say his delivery is slow, deliberate, passionate and honest. A critic of Giggs would say that he sounds like a lobotomised retard reading out ghetto nursery-rhymes. I hold the opinion that whilst Giggs is certainly not breaking any boundaries when it comes to lyricism he does have qualities that other artists lack, mainly authenticity and "gangsterness", by that I mean that when Giggs raps/mumbles threats that, "he will shoot someone if they doth wrong him", he sounds like he genuinely will.

His authenticity as a ‘badman’ is backed up by the fact that Operation Trident seem to have it in for Giggs. They turn up at his gigs and cancel them, they got him dropped from a record label and they got him kicked off of a tour with Lil Wayne for being too ‘violent’. I personally find it as ridiculous as I do impressive; to be kicked off a standard popstar’s tour for being violent is understandable but slightly cool but for being kicked off the tour of one of gangster rap’s most famous patrons, who’s image and popularity largely depends on having a history of being a bit of drug slangin’, bitch fuckin’ piece shooting vagabond is pretty badass… but sadly on the other hand it also makes a large aspect of hip-hop a bit laughable - it would be like the Rolling Stones in their prime kicking someone off their tour-bus for drinking a can of shandy and letting off a party popper….Ok well it’s not exactly like that but it’s a good analogy and a damn funny one if you’re intellectually capable of understanding a top-notch level of wit.

If you want to check Giggs out, then the tracks I suggest you download/youtube are ‘Talking the Hardest’ ‘You Raised Me’ ‘Walk in Da Park’ and my favourite ‘Slow Songs’ which features a fucking sick and beautifully poetic verse from his mentor Mike Skinner (I probably should have mentioned that he was handpicked by Skinner’s label earlier)

His albums thus far are ‘Walk in Da Park’ and ‘Let Em’ Ave it’ (I’m lead to believe that Em’ is shortened slang for Them and not a girl called Emma whom he was going to ‘Let Ave It’)

Flow: 8/10

Lyricism: 6/10

Gangsterness: 9/10

Dickheadness: 2/10

Song Quality: 7/10

Final Bar – I’m a fan of Giggs; he offers good music and a decent insight into gang related violence (that sounded so suburban), but I do understand that not everybody will enjoy the dark mumbling tones of a bloke who sounds like a murderous old man who’s been through a couple of strokes.

-TDS_Brio Boy